It is known to drill wells to extract oil or gas from hydrocarbon-bearing strata located underground or under the seabed. After an oil or gas well has been drilled and casing has been installed to establish a well bore, a string of production tubing is run into the well to direct the flow of hydrocarbons up the cased well bore and out of the well. One or more selected portions of the production tubing string is perforated adjacent to the location of known hydrocarbon-bearing strata to allow hydrocarbons to enter and flow upwardly through the production tubing string. Methods of perforating tubing are well known in the art. Such methods include the use of explosive charges or the firing of projectiles.
Over time, it is known for flow of hydrocarbons through the perforated tubing to become impeded when debris is deposited in the perforations or scaling occurs. As production flow drops off, an operator may suspect that scale or other debris is blocking perforations in the production tubing.
The present invention was developed to provide a flushing tool and a method of flushing perforated tubing to improve the flow of hydrocarbons from a producing well.